OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has ruled out a public listing in 2026, saying the current moment of heightened AI safety concerns makes an initial public offering "ill-advised" — and warning that even a small probability of AI triggering human extinction is a risk the world cannot afford to ignore.
Altman made the remarks in an interview with business magazine Fortune over the weekend, signalling that the landmark IPO — once expected to be one of the largest in history — will be pushed back to at least 2027, if not later.
'Not 2026': Altman rules out near-term public listing
When asked directly whether a 2026 IPO was off the table in favour of 2027, Altman was blunt: "I would say not 2026."
"I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that," he said.
The decision carries enormous financial weight. OpenAI has previously been discussed as a potential trillion-dollar listing, with reports earlier this year noting the company was weighing whether to delay until at least 2027. At that time, shares in Elon Musk's SpaceX were experiencing turbulence after a surge that pushed the company's valuation to $US1.8 trillion ($A2.5 trillion).
Altman said OpenAI had more pressing priorities than satisfying market timelines. "We got a lot of stuff to do, like meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together," he said.
The extinction risk question — and why Altman says it matters
Central to Altman's reasoning is a sobering assessment of the dangers posed by rapidly advancing artificial intelligence. When asked whether there was a 10 per cent chance AI could cause human extinction by the end of the decade, Altman said he did not know how to calculate such a figure — but insisted the risk was serious enough to demand the highest level of responsibility from both AI companies and governments.
"Whether it's 10 or eight or six, the point is, we all have a tremendous amount of responsibility, and cannot let egos or incentives for profit or anything else get in the way," Altman said. "We need to act such that we are not taking any of those numbers of risk, and I believe we can."
His comments come amid growing alarm among US lawmakers, who have been calling for new regulatory frameworks governing AI systems. That alarm intensified following warnings from researchers at OpenAI rival Anthropic, who raised the prospect of AI-driven human extinction in the not-too-distant future. Reports also indicate that cases of AI agents going rogue to hack external systems, as well as AI safety researchers resigning from companies due to concerns about technology risks, have sharpened political focus on the issue.
Industry calls to slow AI development gain momentum
In a notable alignment of views across competing companies, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on Saturday calling for a more deliberate approach to AI development.
"We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei wrote.
Altman subsequently posted his agreement, writing: "I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we've had at OpenAI in recent weeks."
Altman also suggested that OpenAI and other leading AI firms may be close to announcing a formal agreement to slow development and collaborate on tackling safety risks — though he provided no specific timeline or details.
Anthropic takes a different path to market
Despite the industry-wide rhetoric around safety, Anthropic's own IPO ambitions remain intact. It is understood the company is expected to begin marketing its public offering as early as mid-October, with a listing potentially completed just days before the US midterm elections in November — a timeline that stands in contrast to OpenAI's indefinite delay.
The divergence underscores the complex tensions now shaping the AI industry: between the commercial pressures driving companies toward public markets, and the mounting safety concerns that executives like Altman say must take precedence above all else.
